The invention relates to a defroster air vent arrangement having an air distributor housing with an adjustable covering device and having a defroster nozzle for regulating the flow of defroster air and for distributing the defroster air onto the interior portion of the motor vehicle windshields.
It appears that such a defroster vent arrangement has been contemplated. This arrangement serves, with an adjustable covering device inside the air distributor housing to allow a flow of defroster air to escape past the adjustable covering device and to be distributed through the defroster nozzle onto the windshield of a motor vehicle. When the adjustable covering device is in the open position, the whole current of warm or mixed air entering into the air distribution housing flows into the defroster nozzle. After the defrosting has taken place, the covering may be closed so that at least by far the largest part of the warm air flowing into the air distributor housing is deflected and is discharged via lateral or leg room nozzles.
In a known arrangement of the initially mentioned type, the defroster air flowing to the windshield during the closed operation of the adjustable covering device has the purpose of keeping the windshield defrosted during the further course with defrosting of the windshield only in the area where the defroster air is distributed to the windshield through the mouth of the defroster nozzle resulting in the disadvantage that an insufficient defrosting is provided to the central viewing area of the windshield producing the undesirable effect that the driver's view of the outside environment is limited. Furthermore, because a clear viewing area is helpful in the safe operation of the motor vehicle, the driver must frequently open and close the adjustable covering device or position the adjustable covering device to a setting allowing for a continuous large volume of defroster air flow to reach the windshield resulting in an undesirable draft phenomena occurring particularly at the level of the heads of the occupants of the motor vehicle causing their discomfort.
An objective of the invention is to provide a defroster vent arrangement of the above-mentioned type with constructively simple means so that defroster air is distributed to the windshield in sufficient volume to provide an adequate defrosting of the entire windshield when the adjustable covering device is in a partially closed position.
This objective is achieved according to preferred embodiments of the invention by providing a defroster vent arrangement which includes an air distributor housing means having an adjustable covering means for selectively regulating the flow of the defroster air through the air distributor housing means, and having connecting duct means of unequal cross-sectional areas, a defroster nozzle means having guiding air duct means of unequal cross-sectional areas and having a mouth means for uniformly distributing the defroster air onto the windshield, and a defroster nozzle connecting means for connecting the defroster nozzle means to the air distributor housing means.
When the defroster nozzle is divided into parallelly aligned air guiding ducts of substantially unequal cross-sectional areas by a wall web and is arranged over the air distributor housing having a free-ending web aligned vertically below the wall web in the defroster nozzle creating connecting ducts of correspondingly substantially unequal cross-sectional area continuing into the air guiding ducts and a sufficient flow of defroster air is selectively allowed to pass through the connecting duct and air guiding duct of the smaller cross-sectional area through an air outlet arranged in the mouth of the defroster nozzle extending along the substantial length of the windshield and positioned closest to the windshield there is permitted a constantly maintained defrosting of the entire windshield when the adjustable covering device is in the partially closed position. Because the adjustable covering device is further positionable, the full flow of the defroster air reaches the windshield through both air outlets of the mouth of the defroster nozzle when the adjustable covering device is in open positions and the defroster air can be prevented from entering into the connecting ducts and is deflected against the adjustable covering device and is discharged from the air distributor housing through lateral or leg-room nozzles when the adjustable covering device is in the closed position.
In an especially preferred embodiment of the invention a single pivotable flap is provided to form the adjustable covering device and is selectively operable to all desired defroster air flow regulating positions.
In certain preferred embodiments of the invention first and second pivotable flaps are provided to form the adjustable covering device. The first pivotable flap is arranged inside the connecting duct of the smaller cross-sectional area and is independently selectively operable to an open and closed position. The second pivotable flap is arranged inside the connecting duct of the larger cross-sectional area and is independently selectively operable to an open and closed position, allowing selection of all desired defroster air flow regulating positions.
Further objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description when taken with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, an embodiment/several embodiments in accordance with the present invention.